UK travel spending via open banking jumps 230% in 2025 so far

Travel firms benefit from lower processing fees and a reduction in chargebacks

Open Banking specialist, Trustly, has revealed UK holidaymakers spent 230% more year-on-year on travel in January 2024 using the secure account-to-account payment technology. 

January is often the most popular month to book holidays with many businesses offering discounts at the start of the year. 

The research showed the growing use of Pay by Bank among both consumers and businesses in the industry. 

The growth is based on Trustly’s transaction data from more than 250 travel businesses across Europe that now use its technology. Trustly’s technology has been adopted by some of the world’s largest travel firms including Booking.com, Etihad Airways, Norwegian Air, KLM, Wizz Air, Air France, and Stena Line.

Across Europe, using Pay by Bank to spend on travel has risen by 7% Year-on-Year in January. 

After the UK, the largest increase in spending of any European country has been in Germany with 22% growth compared to the same month last year. 

Using Open Banking at the checkout allows travel firms to benefit from lower processing fees, a reduction in chargebacks, and immediate settlement to improve cash flow.

Simon Eve, vice president of travel & e-Commerce of Trustly UK, said: “Payments are particularly complicated in the travel industry, where delayed settlements are common and businesses face a higher fraud risk that drives up cost and increases operational challenges. 

"To tackle this, airlines and hotel providers are now offering Open Banking payment options as well as traditional card payments. 

“Open Banking creates multiple efficiencies for firms by reducing processing fees, cutting chargebacks, and allowing significantly faster settlement of payments to improve cashflow. 

"As travel firms typically deal with high-value transactions and long settlement delays, they stand to gain significantly by adopting account-to-account payments. 

"Our figures show this has resulted in an impressive increase in Open Banking transactions compared to previous years.”